Bookmark



March 31, 1953 J. N. B. wlLsoN BoomARx Filed' Nov. 22, 194s ATTORNEYSPatented Mar. 31, 1953 UNITED STATES PTENT OFFICE BOOKMARK' John N. B.Wilson, Detroit, Mich. Application November 22, 1948, Serial No. 61,429

3 Claims. l

The present invention-relates to bookmarks, and more especially, to anewy and improved bookmark which may be easily and quickly applied toold or to new books, without defacing or damaging the same, or otherwisedetracting from the appearance, form or size of the book.

With the ever-increasing popularity of books, literature, and otherforms of reading matter in book form, suchv as magazines, pamphlets,catalogs', etc.,l whether for pleasure or relaxation, or for the moreserious aspects of educational study, business or professionalinterests, or the like, there has been a continued and pronounced demandfor a simple andpractical means for markingY or otherwise indicating thereading progress in the book or volume being read, or for markingspecial points of interest or reference therein. AlthoughV manydifferent bookmarks have been proposed or used, few; if any, have beenpractical or entirely satisfactory, and none has been suiiicientlyoutstanding to become standard. Some even mutilate or damage the book,and others areY too easily lost or misplaced, or uriduly subject toaccidental displacement.

With the foregoing deficiencies in mind, it is the primary object of thepresent invention to provide a bookmark which is relatively inexpensive,simple and effective, and of great usefulness to book readers, withoutany tendency to mutilate or damage the book, or to change its normalappearance, size and/or form.

A further object of the invention is to provide a new and improvedbookmark which may beY positively attached to any book or volume,whether old or new, in such a manner that it cannot be lost4 ormisplaced, and hence. is always quickly available for use,.yetout-of-the-way and wholly concealed when not in use.

Another object of the invention is toprovide a new article ofmanufacture comprising a bookmark having the form of an elongated,flexible marker member, and an anchor member for movably attaching theelongated marker member to the inner face of the. back of a book orother volume, or to some other appropriate page of the book, said markerandf anchor members` cooperating with each other so as to permitshi-fting ofthe anchorV member from a normal, outof-the-way, concealedposition, lying flat against the cover or the page to which it isattached, and wholly within the margins of the same, to a positionextended fromv one edge of the book so as to enable the extended end tobe folded over anypage of the book according. to the. progress of thereader, or tov mark any desired page for reference purposes.

A stillA further object of the invention is" to provide a bookmark asaforementioned, wherein the marker member' and the anchor member are. soconstructed and arranged as to positively limit the retracting andextending. movements, respectively, of the marker member, whereby toprevent the marker member from becoming. 1nadvertently detached from`the book. Y

Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will behereinafter described and the novel. features thereof defined in the'lap'- pended claims.

In the drawing:

Figurev 1 is a perspective view showing a bookmark constructed. inaccordance with the present invention, as applied to the inner face ofthe back of a typical book or volume, with the shiftable marker memberfully retracted to an outof-the-way position, and wholly lying withinthe margins of the back of the book so as to be concealed when the bookis closed, the back of thebook in this view being' swung to an openposition, and portions of the remainderof the book, being broken` away;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary viewin front' elevation of the back of thebook, as viewed towards' the inner face thereof, with the bookmarkvapplied thereto, and the shiftable part of the bookmark shown infulllines inv its fully extended position, and in broken lines in itsfully retracted position;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional viewJ through the book of Figure 1,showing the shift'- able. marker member extended and folded for'- Wardlyover the upper edges of the book. pages; and thence folded downwardlyover a. selected page so that the extreme end of the marker member liesflat between two adjacentv pages to' denote the readers progress, orsome other reference point, as the case may be;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary sectional View" as taken on the line 4-4 ofFigure 1; and

Figure 5 is a detail view of the anchor member in rear elevation, andshowing the gummedV ends thereof which serve to enable the same tobeeasily and quickly secured to a book.

Like reference characters. designate corresponding parts in the severalfigures of the drawing.,

wherein I generally denotesA a typical book or volume having arelatively stiff front or co'veir 2 and a corresponding relatively stiffbackor cover 3 forming parts of the usual binding for the intermediatepagesv d of the book. The form, shape and size of the book. are notmaterial to" the'.

present invention, nor is it essential that the covers, that is, thefront and back, be stiff or relatively stiff, since the invention issimilarly applicable to soft or paper bindings of magazines, catalogs,and the like, although the invention will be found to be moreparticularly useful with books having stiff or relatively stift` coversor bindings. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the term book, asused in this description and in the appended claims, is to be construedin its broad ysense or significance.

According to the present invention, the bookmark is composed of twoelements respectively designated 5 and 6, the element 5 constituting ananchor member, and the element G constituting a marker member which ismovably or shiftably attached to the book by the anchor member 5,

IIhe anchor member 5 has the form of a relatively flat strip which ispreferably reduced in width at its central portion, as indicated at l,and the rear faces of each end portion 8, 8 are gummed or coated with asuitable adhesive as indicated at 9, for the purpose of enabling theanchor member to be quickly and easily attached to the inner face of theback 3 of the book, as more particularly shown in Figures 1 and 2 of thedrawing. When so attached, the anchor member extends transversely acrossthe face of the back of the book, and the reduced intermedia-te portion'I of the anchor member is left free and unattached so as to receive themarker member 6 behind the same, while permitting the marker member E tobe freely shiftable in an upward and downward direction as viewed inFigures 1 and 2.

The upper end of the marker member 6 is enlarged, as at I0, by laterallyextending the same so as to form a tab or tongue Il at each sidethereof, the lower edge of each tab or tongue being downwardly andoutwardly inclined, as at I2, and forming a notch I3 at each side of themarker member where the enlarged end It! joins the portion of the markermember below the same. Thus, the upper end of the marker membergenerally conforms in shape to an arrow head, although this specificshape is not essential to the invention.

The lower end of the marker member 5 is likewise enlarged, as at Ill,and is laterally extended at each side thereof, as indicated at l5, I5,with the upper edges of the extended portions inclining upwardly andoutwardly, as at I6, IG, so as to form notches I 'I at the upper side ofthe enlarged portion I 4, generally corresponding to the notches I3, I3at the upper end of the marker member. Between the enlarged ends I andlll respectively, the marker member is preferably uniform in width so asto freely slide in an upward and downward direction between the maximumlimits of its movement which are respectively shown in broken lines andin full lines in Figure 2 of the drawing. As will be obvious from thedrawing and the foregoing description, the marker member 6 may be moveddownwardly to the position shown in full lines in Figure l and in brokenlines in Figure 2, which position constitutes the normal out-of-the-wayor retracted position of the marker member. In s'uch position, themarker member is restrained against further downward movement and isprevented from becoming inadvertently disengaged from the anchor member5 .by interengagement of the notches i3, I3 with the anchor member 5, asclearly shown in Figure 1. When in this position, the marker member 6lies wholly within the margins of the back 3 of the book, so that 4 whenthe back is closed, the marker member is completely concealed.

In order to utilize the marker member 6 for marking the reading progressin the book, the marker member may be drawn upwardly to the positionshown in full lines in Figure 2, which constitutes an extended positionwhich is limited by engagement of the notches Il, Il at the bottom ofthe marker member with the anchor member 5, as clearly shown in Figure2. In this extended position, accidental or inadvertent detachment ofthe marker member is positively prevented. When in its extendedposition, the marker member may be folded forwardly across the upperedges of the pages 4 of the book, and thence downwardly upon anyselected page to which the book is open, whereupon, on closing the book,the marker will assume a marking position as exemplied in Figure 3 ofthe drawing, with the extended end of the marker member 6 held datbetween two adjacent pages of the book. Since the binding of the book,including the front 2 and back 3, usually extends slightly above theedges of the book pages, the entire bookmark, including that portion ofthe marker member 6 which extends over the upper edges of the pages,lies wholly within the extreme outer margins of the book and hence doesnot detract from the form, size and/or appearance of the book. If placedon a book-shelf with other books in an upright position, the bookmarkwill be concealed even though the marker member is in use to mark thereading progress or a reference page in the book.

When the reader is ready to resume reading of the book, the book is rstopened to the page over which the extended end of the marker member 6has previously been folded, whereupon the marker member 6 may be shiftedto its retracted position shown in Figure 1, until ready for furtheruse.

Both the marker member 6 and the anchor member 5 may be made of the samematerial or of different materials, if preferred. Preferably thematerial should be relatively thin so that when the book mark is appliedto a book, it will not materially increase the thickness of the book ordistort the shape of the book. At least the marker member 6 should bemade of a relatively flexible material. I have found that satisfactoryresults may be obtained by making both the anchor member 5 and themarker member 6 of paper, such as a relatively heavy and tough paperlike Kraft paper. Other suitable materials or combinations thereof maybe employed, such as leather, oilcloth, cellophane, Celluloid, plastics,or even thin metal. According to the choice of material, either or boththe anchor member and the marker member may be transparent,semi-transparent, or opaque, and if desired, they may be made ofdifferent colors, with or without decorative designs. For smoothness of0peration, and to insure that the marker member 6 will always lie atagainst the face of the book back, it should have some stiffness, yetshould be sufiiciently flexible to freely fold over the place in thebook to be marked.

order to apply the bookmark to a book, it 1s simply necessary to placethe marker member 6 iiat against the inner face of the back 3 of thebook, and then lay the anchor member across the same as shown in Figure4 so that the opposite ends of the anchor member will become attached tothe book by means of the adhesive surfaces 9 which should previously bemoistened in the case of gummed surfaces, or which need not be moistenedif other suitable substitute adhesives are employed. Instead of applyingthe bookmark to the back or cover of the book, it may be applied to anysuitable page at or near the end of the book, or if preferred, to theinner face of the front 2 or one of the pages at or near the front ofthe book. Whatever the manner of application may be, the bookmarkconstitutes an exceedingly simple, inexpensive, yet exceedingly usefularticle of manufacture.

While the specific details have been herein shown and described, theinvention is not confined thereto as changes and alterations may be madewithout departing from the spirit thereof as defined in the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a book having front and back covers and pagesbetween said covers, said pages and covers being secured together inface-to-face relation, of a bookmark comprising an elongated, flexiblemarker strip, and an anchor strip movably attaching said marker strip toan inner face of the book, said anchor strip having means at itsopposite ends securing the same to the inner face of the book, with theintermediate portion of the anchor strip spaced from the surface t0which its ends are secured and overlying the marker strip so as topermit the marker strip to be freely shifted to and from an extendedposition, and said marker strip being laterally extended at its oppositeends for abutting engagement with the anchor strip for limiting shiftingmovement of the marker strip in opposite directions, and being normallydisposed in a flat condition against the inner face of the book, butbeing shiftable to a position extended from one edge of the book so asto be foldable over the edges of the book pages and thence between anytwo adjacent pages.

2. A bookmark as defined in claim 1, wherein the means at the oppositeends of the anchor strip for securing the same to the face of the bookhas an adhesive surface.

3. The combination with a book having front and back covers and pagesbetween said covers, said pages and covers being secured together inface-to-face relation, of a bookmark comprising an elongated, fiat,flexible marker strip having its opposite ends laterally extended ateach side thereof and having that portion thereof between its ends ofsubstantially uniform width, and an anchor strip attached at itsopposite ends to an inner face of the book with the anchor striptransversely extended across the marker strip and with an intermediateportion of the anchor strip overlying the marker strip and spaced fromthe face of the book to which the ends of the anchor strip are attached,said spaced intermediate portion of the anchor strip being of a lengthslightly greater than the width of the marker strip between itslaterally extended ends, but less than the width of the laterallyextended ends of the marker strip, said marker strip being shiftable inopposite directions between a position extending from one edge of thebook so as to be foldable over the edges of the book pages and thencebetween any two adjacent pages, and a position within the margins of thebook, and said laterally extended ends of said marker strip beingselectively engageable with said anchor strip to limit movement of saidmarker strip in opposite directions to the positions aforesaid.

JOHN N. B. WILSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 288,285 Webb Nov. 13, 1883470,690 Martin Mar. 15, 1892 623,415 McCluskey Apr. 18, 1899 1,862,573Grosz June 14, 1932 2,202,787 Zumpft May 28, 1940 2,405,374 Singer Aug.6, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 316,823 Great Britain Aue.8, 1929 379,459 Great Britain Sept. 1, 1932

